Too Few Lawyers

In response to a students comment that the number of lawyers in Korea have increased significantly in recent decades.

That is interesting that things have changed that much in Korea. The Japanese government has purposely limited the number of "lawyers" although many people have undergraduate law degree and perform legal functions. When I first went to Japan, I was told similar things about the Confusion ideal and that Japanese were simply not litigious. The Japanese also use a system in which a shokaisha (introducer) is normally required before companies agree to do business. The shokaisha facilitates the negotiation and later if a problem develops the shokaisha mediates the dispute.

However, my experience has always been that deep down people are people with the same problems and emotions. When I was an intern at a law firm I saw some of the negative effects of severely restricting the number of lawyers. The first assignment that I had was to translate interviews of three friends, who were involved in a dispute.

The three had known each other since they were in Jr. High. One of the three managed the Tokyo office for a US airline. The other two had just started a loan sharking business. The US airline gave the manager $300,000 and asked that he invest the money for a few months until the money was needed for a lease payment on an airplane.

The 2 friends asked the manager to invest the money in their loan sharking business. They promised a high return and telling him that he would be a big man with his company for earning such a high return. Well the three of them then spent the next 8 months frequenting the hostess bars at the Ginza. At that time the 2 friends told the manager that the money was all gone. They spent it all at the bars.

Of course this resulted in a big fight between the three. However, with so few lawyers in Japan, it is not easy to hire a lawyer and go to court. So, instead they all hired Yakuza and spent several months trying to intimidate each other with late night threatening calls. At one point, a truck dumped manure on one of their yards. In the end the dispute was handled in a very messy way with no resolution.

Lawyers are not the answer to everything. The US certainly has problems in the other direction, wasting large amounts of money of frivolous litigation and on cases where only the lawyers win. But, there are also problems when there are not enough lawyers in a country.

		September 4, 2006 *Can there be too few Lawyers?*
	In response to a students comment that the number of lawyers in Korea have increased significantly in recent decades. That is interesting that things have changed that much in Korea. The Japanese government has purposely limited the number of "lawyers" although many people have undergraduate law degree and perform legal functions. When I first went to Japan, I was told similar things about the Confusion ideal and that Japanese were simply not litigious. The Japanese also use a system in which a shokaisha (introducer) is normally required before companies agree to do business. The shokaisha facilitates the negotiation and later if a problem develops the shokaisha mediates the dispute. However, my experience has always been that deep down people are people with the same problems and emotions. When I was an intern at a law firm I saw some of the negative effects of severely restricting the number of lawyers. The first assignment that I had was to translate interviews of three friends, who were involved in a dispute. The three had known each other since they were in Jr. High. One of the three managed the Tokyo office for a US airline. The other two had just started a loan sharking business. The US airline gave the manager $300,000 and asked that he invest the money for a few months until the money was needed for a lease payment on an airplane. The 2 friends asked the manager to invest the money in their loan sharking business. They promised a high return and telling him that he would be a big man with his company for earning such a high return. Well the three of them then spent the next 8 months frequenting the hostess bars at the Ginza. At that time the 2 friends told the manager that the money was all gone. They spent it all at the bars. Of course this resulted in a big fight between the three. However, with so few lawyers in Japan, it is not easy to hire a lawyer and go to court. So, instead they all hired Yakuza and spent several months trying to intimidate each other with late night threatening calls. At one point, a truck dumped manure on one of their yards. In the end the dispute was handled in a very messy way with no resolution. Lawyers are not the answer to everything. The US certainly has problems in the other direction, wasting large amounts of money of frivolous litigation and on cases where only the lawyers win. But, there are also problems when there are not enough lawyers in a country.